Law himself was the victim of a somewhat amusing result of his own methods about this time. Some months before he negotiated with the President of Novion the purchase of his estates for £400,000 francs. The President required payment to be made in silver, and Law, who was anxious to impress everyone with the advantages to be gained by the use of paper alone, could not of course refuse, declaring that he preferred to be rid of a metal which was to him a burden on account of its bulk, and of the embarrassment it caused him. Unfortunately Law was compelled afterwards to re-transfer the estates to the President’s son to whom the right of pre-emption had been reserved, and received back the price in notes which he was bound to accept according to his own decree. Nor could Law complain of the advantage that had been taken of him without depreciating the value of his own paper. A measure of vastly greater importance and destined to lead to much graver consequences than even those already mentioned was the union of the Royal Bank and the Indian Company. A meeting was held on 22nd February at the Bank to which had been called the principal shareholders of the Company, the proposal being formally made and agreed to. Since the General Bank had been converted, in December, 1718, into a Royal institution, it had carried on its business for the benefit of the Royal revenues alone. The notes in circulation carried the guarantee of the King, a guarantee which was still to remain notwithstanding the amalgamation. For the ostensible purpose of preventing unlimited issue of additional notes it was provided that authority must in all cases be first obtained from the Council. Since the Council was in all its deliberations under the influence of the Regent, it will be seen later how worthless such a provision proved as an effective check to arbitrary fabrication of paper. During the period of the Bank’s existence as a Royal establishment, it had carried on business with great success, its balance sheet showing on paper a profit 120,000,000 livres of profit. This profit it was also arranged should be transferred intact to the company for the benefit of its shareholders. The object which Law had in view in bringing about the union could only have been one of expediency. It contained no feature which promised permanent success to the undertaking, and showed a singular lack of foresight and real business capacity. Undoubtedly it gave encouragement to speculators, who were carried away by the apparent increase of stability given to the Company by the amalgamation. But even this was of short duration. It was impossible to conceal for long the elusory nature of the transaction, and it soon became clear that a false step had been taken inasmuch as the fortunes of the Bank were now altogether bound up with those of the Company.